Jim Demint, Freedom Fighter

"Once again we find that the only free speech Jim Demint supports is the speech with which he agrees."

The above quote was not by Jim Demint, but by me, paraphrasing Jim Demint.  We used to say, back in the day of projectors, "You could run film through him," regarding Jim Demint's psychological tendency to project his own evil on his self-sworn enemies.

So, given NPR's poorly timed firing of Juan Williams, leave it to Demint to jump upon the opportunity to denouce, not just NPR, but all publicly funded broadcasting.

The issue is not, of course, the firing of Williams.  The debate, to be honest, is of the conflicting roles of news and commentary.  Of course, most of us are able to distinguish, for example, Williams' airing his opinions on Fox, versus an actual news broadcast.  NPR, just as did the Agriculture Department with Shirley Sherrod just a few months ago, overreacted.  They overreacted fearing complaints by not just their critics but by their supporters.  In other words, they fell victim to the Democrats' fear of conflict.

By doing so, NPR has opened itself up to sworn enemies like Demint, who have, since the Reagan anti-government crusade began, been slowly decimating publicly funded media.  With the decline in government funding, NPR has been forced to depend increasingly on corporate sponsorship.  Meanwhile, Demint and his cronies continue to attempt to further cut funding, while increasing the amount of control they have over this once truly public media.

Considering the constant attacks and the need to beg for funding, it is amazing that NPR continues to be a strong and respected source for news.  So far, when funding is threatened, the American people speak up.  But there will always be attacks from people like Demint, and truly free and objective news will always be vulnerable.

I long for a return to the days when NPR did not have corporate sponsorship.  I remember when NPR did not have to fear repercussions from their government funders for decisions made in their best judgment.  If NPR did not have to live under the dictates of people like corporate senator Jim Demint, and their unfortunate corporate sponsorship, and of course, donations begged from their listening audience, they would be less fearful of controversy.  Perhaps Juan Williams' confused fears about Moslems on airplanes would have been just another strange day at Bill O'Reilly's place.